Liverpool handed Andoni Iraola several problems this season. The Reds' head coach has found a genius solution, however.
Andoni Iraola took over Liverpool in the summer but things weren't made easy for him. The squad just isn't balanced, for one, with glaring problems in midfield, defence and attack.
The main midfield issue? A lack of a defensive midfielder. And arguably, a lack of real options in the side - the club sold Curtis Jones without replacing him and asked Iraola to rely on Trey Nyoni.
The defensive issues are different. They're more long-term - only Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni are contracted to Liverpool at centre-back beyond this season and one of those hasn't played in over a year.
Then there's the attack, which is different once again. The options are there but they're unbelievably lopsided. Four left-wingers, zero right-wingers, and that's asked Iraola to be creative.
Andoni Iraola's Rio Ngumoha genius
The solution to finding a right-winger is to convert a left-winger. That much is obvious. It's easier said than done, however, as all of Liverpool's options are right-footed and all prefer to cut inside.
They can't naturally do that from the other flank and it's why I didn't believe Rio Ngumoha could play that role. He's raw, still learning the game, and so asking him to do something completely different to what got him into the first-team seemed mad, quite honestly.
Ngumoha likes to cut inside and work a shot at goal. Maybe a pass into the box. Cutting inside from the right means being on his left and suddenly a shot at goal isn't all that viable.
Iraola, though, stuck to his guns and persisted with Ngumoha on the right. It has paid dividends. The teenager is more dangerous than ever, learning to consistently get to the byline and split defences, rather than cutting inside in front of them.
It's a far, far more dangerous skill than just working the ball onto your shooting foot. Villarreal saw that first hand as they had no real idea of how to stop Ngumoha - he could drive on the outside of them, quickly getting them all running back towards their own goal.
A cut-back led to Alexis Mac Allister scoring, while he also demonstrated his ability to switch flanks with a first-half assist from the left for Ronald Araujo. (Even if that one did rely on some shocking defending).
But Iraola's insistence that Ngumoha can learn to play on the right has proven to be genius. Liverpool have a better player as a result - someone who asks serious questions of defences and bring an entirely new element to the team.